23.18 Chronicles specifies that the guards mentioned in 2 Kings were levitical priests organized by David. Cf. 1 Chr 15–16, 23–27; 2 Chr 29.25–30. The levitical priests offer the sacrifices required in the Pentateuch.
23.19 The Chronicler adds a reference to gatekeepers, who were to keep out all who were unclean.
23.20 Captains, nobles, governors, all the people, a list demonstrating the wide support for Joash. Upper gate. 2 Kings 11.19 reads “the gate of the guards.” They set the king. In 2 Kings the king himself takes his seat.
23.21 Quiet. Cf. 1 Chr 4.40; 22.9; 2 Chr 14.1, 6; 20.30. 2 Kings 11.20 notes that Athaliah was killed at the king’s house.
2 CHRONICLES 24
Joash Repairs the Temple
1Joash was seven years old when he began to reign; he reigned forty years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Zibiah of Beer-sheba. 2Joash did what was right in the sight of the LORD all the days of the priest Jehoiada. 3Jehoiada got two wives for him, and he became the father of sons and daughters.
4Some time afterward Joash decided to restore the house of the LORD. 5He assembled the priests and the Levites and said to them, “Go out to the cities of Judah and gather money from all Israel to repair the house of your God, year by year; and see that you act quickly.” But the Levites did not act quickly. 6So the king summoned Jehoiada the chief, and said to him, “Why have you not required the Levites to bring in from Judah and Jerusalem the tax levied by Moses, the servant of the LORD, ona the congregation of Israel for the tent of the covenant?”b 7For the children of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken into the house of God, and had even used all the dedicated things of the house of the LORD for the Baals.
8So the king gave command, and they made a chest, and set it outside the gate of the house of the LORD. 9A proclamation was made throughout Judah and Jerusalem to bring in for the LORD the tax that Moses the servant of God laid on Israel in the wilderness. 10All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full. 11Whenever the chest was brought to the king’s officers by the Levites, when they saw that there was a large amount of money in it, the king’s secretary and the officer of the chief priest would come and empty the chest and take it and return it to its place. So they did day after day, and collected money in abundance. 12The king and Jehoiada gave it to those who had charge of the work of the house of the LORD, and they hired masons and carpenters to restore the house of the LORD, and also workers in iron and bronze to repair the house of the LORD. 13So those who were engaged in the work labored, and the repairing went forward at their hands, and they restored the house of God to its proper condition and strengthened it. 14When they had finished, they brought the rest of the money to the king and Jehoiada, and with it were made utensils for the house of the LORD, utensils for the service and for the burnt offerings, and ladles, and vessels of gold and silver. They offered burnt offerings in the house of the LORD regularly all the days of Jehoiada.
Apostasy of Joash
15But Jehoiada grew old and full of days, and died; he was one hundred thirty years old at his death. 16And they buried him in the city of David among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, and for God and his house.
17Now after the death of Jehoiada the officials of Judah came and did obeisance to the king; then the king listened to them. 18They abandoned the house of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, and served the sacred polesc and the idols. And wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this guilt of theirs. 19Yet he sent prophets among them to bring them back to the LORD; they testified against them, but they would not listen.
20Then the spirit of God took possession ofd Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, “Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the LORD, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the LORD, he has also forsaken you.” 21But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the LORD. 22King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, “May the LORD see and avenge!”
Death of Joash
23At the end of the year the army of Aram came up against Joash. They came to Judah and Jerusalem, and destroyed all the officials of the people from among them, and sent all the booty they took to the king of Damascus. 24Although the army of Aram had come with few men, the LORD delivered into their hand a very great army, because they had abandoned the LORD, the God of their ancestors. Thus they executed judgment on Joash.
25When they had withdrawn, leaving him severely wounded, his servants conspired against him because of the blood of the sone of the priest Jehoiada, and they killed him on his bed. So he died; and they buried him in the city of David, but they did not bury him in the tombs of the kings. 26Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. 27Accounts of his sons, and of the many oracles against him, and of the rebuildingf of the house of God are written in the Commentary on the Book of the Kings. And his son Amaziah succeeded him.
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a Compare Vg: Heb and
b Or treaty, or testimony; Heb eduth
c Heb Asherim
d Heb clothed itself with
e Gk Vg: Heb sons
f Heb founding
24.1–14 Cf. 2 Kings 12.1–17. Although both Kings and Chronicles record the restoration of the temple, their accounts diverge from one another more widely than usual.
24.2 According to 2 Kings 12.2 Joash did what was right all his days, but Chronicles records a change in Joash’s life after the death of Jehoiada. The notice in 2 Kings 12.3 that Joash did not remove the high places is omitted, since it would not conform to the Chronicler’s depiction of the first part of Joash’s reign.
24.3 Wives and children are signs of God’s blessing for the pious Joash.
24.5 Joash requests that the priests and Levites raise a special collection, but the Levites react slowly, possibly because this collection would divert funds from their own income. The Levites play no role in 2 Kings 12.
24.6 Joash prods Jehoiada to get the Levites to collect the tax said to have been inaugurated by Moses for the building of the tabernacle (Ex 30.12–16; 38.25–26).
24.7 Chronicles provides specifics on what was wrong with the temple; 2 Kings 12.6 speaks vaguely of the need for repairs.
24.8 Chest. A collection box was a common feature in ancient Near Eastern temples. Outside the gate reflects Second Temple practice, when laity had no access to the inner court. In 2 Kings 12.9 the chest is placed beside the altar.
24.10 The joyous generosity of the people repeats the joy of the wilderness community over the tabernacle (Ex 36.4–7) and provides an example for the Chronicler’s audience (cf. 1 Chr 29.9).
24.14 Funds are used for various types of temple paraphernalia, as in the construction of the tabernacle (Ex 25; 31.1–10); in 2 Kings 12.13–14 this is explicitly prohibited.
24.15–22 The Chronicler adds a description of Joash’s apostasy after the death of Jehoiada.
24.15 Jehoiada’s extremely long life testifies symbolically to his fidelity.
24.16 Jehoiada the priest is given a grave among the kings while Joash himself is not (v. 25).
24.17–19 Joash heeds the bad advice of officials who worship poles and idols dedicated to the goddess Asherah and refuses the admonition of prophets. Note the immediate retribution for their abandoning of the temple.
24.20 Jehoiada’s son Zechariah threatens retribution in words reminiscent of Moses’ (Num 14.41).
24.21 The officials and the king agree to the murder of Zechariah (cf. Mt 23.35; Lk 11.50–51) and kill him in the temple, where Jehoiada made Joash king and where efforts have been made by Jehoiada to avoid violence (cf. 23.14).
24.22 Zechariah calls for divine retribution.
24.23–27 Cf. 2 Kings 12.19–21.
24.24 The small Aramean army was empowered by the Lord to defeat a far more numerous Judean army that had committed the fatal sin of abandoning God. Chronicles stresses elsewhere that a small Judean army could defeat a larger enemy army (2 Chr 13.3, 13–18; 14.9–13; 20.2, 20–23).
24.25 Joash’s servants murder him because he has participated in the murder of Zechariah. 2 Kings provides no rationale for this murder. Joash is denied royal burial by the Chronicler in spite of evidence to the contrary in 2 Kings 12.21.
24.26 The chief conspirators are children of an Ammonite woman and a Moabite woman. Although the names of the conspirators come from 2 Kings 12.21, the ethnic designations come from the Chronicler.
24.27 Commentary on the Book of the Kings. Cf. 13.22.
2 CHRONICLES 25
Reign of Amaziah
1Amaziah was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 2He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not with a true heart. 3As soon as the royal power was firmly in his hand he killed his servants who had murdered his father the king. 4But he did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the law, in the book of Moses, where the LORD commanded, “The parents shall not be put to death for the children, or the children be put to death for the parents; but all shall be put to death for their own sins.”
Slaughter of the Edomites
5Amaziah assembled the people of Judah, and set them by ancestral houses under commanders of the thousands and of the hundreds for all Judah and Benjamin. He mustered those twenty years old and upward, and found that they were three hundred thousand picked troops fit for war, able to handle spear and shield. 6He also hired one hundred thousand mighty warriors from Israel for one hundred talents of silver. 7But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, do not let the army of Israel go with you, for the LORD is not with Israel—all these Ephraimites. 8Rather, go by yourself and act; be strong in battle, or God will fling you down before the enemy; for God has power to help or to overthrow.” 9Amaziah said to the man of God, “But what shall we do about the hundred talents that I have given to the army of Israel?” The man of God answered, “The LORD is able to give you much more than this.” 10Then Amaziah discharged the army that had come to him from Ephraim, letting them go home again. But they became very angry with Judah, and returned home in fierce anger.
11Amaziah took courage, and led out his people; he went to the Valley of Salt, and struck down ten thousand men of Seir. 12The people of Judah captured another ten thousand alive, took them to the top of Sela, and threw them down from the top of Sela, so that all of them were dashed to pieces. 13But the men of the army whom Amaziah sent back, not letting them go with him to battle, fell on the cities of Judah from Samaria to Beth-horon; they killed three thousand people in them, and took much booty.
14Now after Amaziah came from the slaughter of the Edomites, he brought the gods of the people of Seir, set them up as his gods, and worshiped them, making offerings to them. 15The LORD was angry with Amaziah and sent to him a prophet, who said to him, “Why have you resorted to a people’s gods who could not deliver their own people from your hand?” 16But as he was speaking the kinga said to him, “Have we made you a royal counselor? Stop! Why should you be put to death?” So the prophet stopped, but said, “I know that God has determined to destroy you, because you have done this and have not listened to my advice.”
Israel Defeats Judah
17Then King Amaziah of Judah took counsel and sent to King Joash son of Jehoahaz son of Jehu of Israel, saying, “Come, let us look one another in the face.” 18King Joash of Israel sent word to King Amaziah of Judah, “A thornbush on Lebanon sent to a cedar on Lebanon, saying, ‘Give your daughter to my son for a wife’ but a wild animal of Lebanon passed by and trampled down the thornbush. 19You say, ‘See, I have defeated Edom,’ and your heart has lifted you up in boastfulness. Now stay at home; why should you provoke trouble so that you fall, you and Judah with you?”
20But Amaziah would not listen—it was God’s doing, in order to hand them over, because they had sought the gods of Edom. 21So King Joash of Israel went up; he and King Amaziah of Judah faced one another in battle at Beth-shemesh, which belongs to Judah. 22Judah was defeated by Israel; everyone fled home. 23King Joash of Israel captured King Amaziah of Judah, son of Joash, son of Ahaziah, at Beth-shemesh; he brought him to Jerusalem, and broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the Ephraim Gate to the Corner Gate, a distance of four hundred cubits. 24He seized all the gold and silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God, and Obed-edom with them; he seized also the treasuries of the king’s house, also hostages; then he returned to Samaria.
Death of Amaziah
25King Amaziah son of Joash of Judah, lived fifteen years after the death of King Joash son of Jehoahaz of Israel. 26Now the rest of the deeds of Amaziah, from first to last, are they not written in the Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel? 27From the time that Amaziah turned away from the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem, and he fled to Lachish. But they sent after him to Lachish, and killed him there. 28They brought him back on horses; he was buried with his ancestors in the city of David.
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a Heb he
25.1–4 Cf. 2 Kings 14.1–6.
25.2 As with Joash, the first half of Amaziah’s reign is judged favorably. With a true heart. 2 Kings 14.3 reads “like his ancestor David.” 2 Kings also indicates that Amaziah behaves like Joash and that the high places are not removed (cf. 2 Chr 24.2; 26.4; 27.2). Amaziah’s performance is half-hearted from the beginning.
25.4 Amaziah’s reason for not killing the children of his father’s murderers is based on Deut 24.16.
25.5–16 Cf. 2 Kings 14.7.
25.5 Three hundred thousand. Asa mustered 580,000 and Jehoshaphat 1,160,000.
25.6 One hundred talents of silver, roughly one ounce of silver for every man.
25.7–8 The oracle of the anonymous man of God is supplied by the Chronicler and shows his usual opposition to an alliance with the North (cf. 13.4–12; 19.1–13).
25.9 God’s help would more than make up for the loss of one-fourth of Amaziah’s army.
25.11 Based on 2 Kings 14.7. Valley of Salt, near the southern end of the Dead Sea (cf. 2 Sam 8.13; 1 Chr 18.12). Seir, a mountainous region southeast of Judah.
25.12 Sela, Hebrew, “rock, precipice.” The exact location is contested.
25.13 Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom. Another city may have originally been mentioned here. Beth-horon, a city in Ephraim near Benjamin.
25.14 In antiquity the gods of defeated nations were sometimes said to abandon their own nation and side with the victor.
25.15–16 Amaziah opposes a second, anonymous prophet, who repeats the inevitability of divine retribution. The king does not listen to divine counsel and follows human counsel (v. 17), to his own harm.
25.17–24 Cf. 2 Kings 14.8–16.
25.18 In this fable, the arrogance of the thistle in proposing a marriage alliance with a cedar is punished by a wild animal.
25.19 Joash castigates Amaziah for his arrogance after the defeat of Edom and warns him to avoid a military confrontation.
25.20 The Chronicler adds his theological interpretation. Amaziah’s stubbornness is really God’s doing (cf. 10.15; 22.7) to punish him for the idolatry of v. 14.
25.21 Faced one another. Note the pun with v. 17 (look one another in the face). Beth-shemesh, a town sixteen miles southwest of Jerusalem.
25.23 Ephraim Gate, in the northern wall of Jerusalem. Corner Gate, in the northwestern corner of the city.
25.24 And Obed-edom with them, better “in the care of Obed-edom” this is only in Chronicles. David had put this levitical family in char
ge of the temple treasuries (1 Chr 13.13–14; 26.4–8, 15).
25.25–28 Cf. 2 Kings 14.17–20.
25.25 Despite his defeat by Joash, Amaziah outlives him by fifteen years.
25.27 Turned away. Cf. vv. 14, 20. In Jerusalem. The conspirators against Amaziah may be responding to the plundering of Jerusalem by Joash in vv. 23–24. Lachish, a city thirty miles southwest of Jerusalem fortified by Rehoboam (11.9).
25.28 David, following the Septuagint and 2 Kings 14.20; in the Hebrew “Judah.” Jerusalem is called the “city of Judah” in the Babylonian Chronicle, a cuneiform historiographic source of the eighth century BCE.
2 CHRONICLES 26
Reign of Uzziah
1Then all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and made him king to succeed his father Amaziah. 2He rebuilt Eloth and restored it to Judah, after the king slept with his ancestors. 3Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. 4He did what was right in the sight of the LORD, just as his father Amaziah had done. 5He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God; and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
6He went out and made war against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod; he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. 7God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabs who lived in Gur-baal, and against the Meunites. 8The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong. 9Moreover Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate, at the Valley Gate, and at the Angle, and fortified them. 10He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil. 11Moreover Uzziah had an army of soldiers, fit for war, in divisions according to the numbers in the muster made by the secretary Jeiel and the officer Maaseiah, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. 12The whole number of the heads of ancestral houses of mighty warriors was two thousand six hundred. 13Under their command was an army of three hundred seven thousand five hundred, who could make war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. 14Uzziah provided for all the army the shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging. 15In Jerusalem he set up machines, invented by skilled workers, on the towers and the corners for shooting arrows and large stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped until he became strong.
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